David Goyer Says Warner Brothers Would Love to Make Their DC Universe More Cohesive

Writer/producer David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel) is a busy man. Aside from his STARZ series Da vinci's Demons, he has Constantine, Sandman, and the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, currently titled Batman vs Superman, all in various stages of development. His DC plate is already full, and the producer has also expressed interest in taking part in the next Green Lantern adaptation for Warner Brothers.

During a conversation about Da vinci's Demons, IGN was able to talk with the prolific writer about his work with Warner Bros. and the evolving landscape of superhero films as each studio attempts to keep pace with Marvel and find their own method to manage their slate of characters.

IGN: You've talked about how Marvel and DC's cinematic universes sort of took an opposite trajectory from the world of the comics, where DC is now sort of the more grounded, more relatable universe.

Goyer: It is odd.

IGN: It's fascinated me, watching that happen. Do you find that it's becoming more challenging as you start to tap into characters that in the comic world were considered more boy scouts?

Goyer: Sure. You mean Superman?

IGN: Sure.

Goyer: Yes. Also, and he's alien. Yeah, I think it's a lot easier to make Batman relatable than it is to make Superman relatable. I mean, writing the script for Man of Steel was a lot more challenging for that very reason.

IGN: Is there any part of you moving forward that -- and I think I know the answer to this, but I want to ask.

Goyer: I probably can't say, but go ahead.[Laughs]

IGN: Would you ever consider any course correction of sorts on Zod and Superman being a killer?

Goyer: [Pause] Yeah... [Laughs] Sorry!

IGN: [Laughs] Fair enough. In very general terms, looking ahead, I'm wondering, in terms of working in television, DC's certainly got a huge presence in TV right now. What are the conversations about how these shows in development are going to tie into the movies? Is that something you think about?

Goyer: I mean, it's too early. I know that Warner Bros. would love to make their universe more cohesive. There have been a lot of general conversations about that, but it's really, really early. I'm not sure. Marvel has had enormous success, but I'm not sure that everybody should try to emulate them either. It's just been vague conversations so far.

IGN: So it's not prohibitive to have Flash showing up on The CW and then perhaps in a Justice League movie - or something - as well?

Goyer: I don't think so. You know, Smallville was running while Bryan Singer's Superman came out, and no one had a heart attack over that. I don't know.

IGN: Sure. Well...some fans are likely to have a heart attack.

Goyer: Fans have a heart attacks -- yeah. There was a poll when they released some stills from Season 2 of Da Vinci with long hair about whether they preferred Tom with long hair or short hair, and 50 percent of the people said "long hair" and 50 percent of the people said "short hair." So you can't win.

IGN: You said that it's not necessarily that everyone should emulate Marvel, and not everyone is. Fox is certainly taking their own route right now, and Sony's starting to take theirs, which is even more unusual in a way, with a focus on the villains. How closely do you look how these things are unfolding and think about how that could impact your approach?

Goyer: I mean, I know this is going to sound cheap, but I don't really. There's just our approach to how we want to tell a story, and hopefully we can convince Warner Bros. or whatnot of that. We don't sit in a room with cigars and say, "Look at what these guys are doing!" It doesn't work that way. I don't know.

IGN: As a fan do you look at it and observe it, or take an interest?

Goyer: I'm a fan. I see all these movies. Some are great, some aren't great. I never thought I'd see the day when there'd be a Guardians of the Galaxy movie or an Ant-Man movie. I mean, that's nuts -- in an amazing way. I just never in my wildest dreams imagined that that would be happening.

IGN: Yeah, for me, it's truly fascinating to watch how Marvel's become more and more outlandish, more and more galactic and out there.

Goyer: You have to admire what Marvel's done. It's really hard to create a brand, I mean, where people will follow your brand. Pixar's done it, and now Marvel has done it. It's really, really hard to do, because there's not a lot of brand loyalty anymore. They've created a cohesive universe, so I really admire what they've done.

IGN: Is there a pressure for you to do the same?

Goyer: I mean, yes and no. Look, we've been pretty lucky with the films we've done so far. I think right now it's just kind of, "More of the same, please." I'm trying to branch off with Sandman.

IGN: I love Sandman. How are you planning to crack that?

Goyer: We'll see. It's tricky. There's a reason why it hasn't been adapted for 15, 16 years. It's really dense and wonderful. Neil is a genius and cerebral. We're just getting into that right now. We'll see.

IGN: Sandman always felt like it would make sense as a TV series. Was that an approach you considered?

Goyer: I think people have tried before. Honestly, it just happened that Warner Bros. asked me if I'd take a crack at it, and I was not sure. We're just getting into it now...

Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.